Fracking Blowout Causes Massive Spill in Pennsylvania

[daggahead]

Source: Truthout.org

Thousands of gallons of potentially toxic hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," liquids spilled across pastures and into a stream in rural Pennsylvania early this morning, after a natural gas well suffered a blowout at 11:45 p.m. Tuesday night.

Francis Roupp, a deputy director of the Bradford County emergency services, said "many thousands" of gallons of fracturing liquids were released after a blowout near the well head. Roupp was unsure how much liquid was released, but he said it is possible that hundreds of thousands of gallons could have been released and have spilled across acres of pasture and into a small tributary to a local river.

Seven families were evacuated from the area and no injuries or release of gas into the atmosphere have been reported, according to local newspaper The Morning Call.

Read more: http://www.truthout.org/fracking-blowout-causes-massive-spill-pennsylvania/1303282800

---

This practice is going to be adopted by oil drilling companies, too.

When will we learn to stop allowing the poisoning?

[lunatica]

1. Another oil spill at the source. Damn!

It's different when it's the Exxon Valdez because ships carry a finite amount. When it's the very source of the oil deposits there's a lot more oil to feed the spill.

[Lint Head]

2. This will not stop until We the People demand that fascist corporations

get OUT of our government.

[H2O Man]

3. Way recommended.

After physical therapy, I'll post some information on how people can join the effort to stop hydro-fracking.

[crickets]

7. Please do, and thank you.

I hope your physical therapy is the feeling better afterwards kind. :hug:

[Bunny]

4. I think Chesapeake Energy is the outfit that's buying a lot of radio time

to brag about how they lead the industry in 'best practices'. Well, that's just great since there are pretty much NO actual regulations covering their activities. And let's not forget that our jagoff governor refuses to even consider an extraction tax on these poor 'energy' companies. We're facing extreme budget cuts in nearly all areas, and we could be getting millions of dollars in the state coffers from our Marcellus Shale deposits, but NOOOOOO, we can't expect these poor companies to pay anything for the raping and pillaging of our state.

PA is screwed for at least the next four years, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

[Orrex]

5. Quick Governor Corbett! Enact a policy to protect the drilling company!

It's the only way you can save your constituents from future events like this!

[jtrockville]

6. No worries.... fish in the Susquehanna were already too contaminated to eat

The fish in the Susquehanna have too much mercury in them to be consumed, regularly anyway:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/report-pennsylvania-mercury-emissions-impact-area-rivers-1.1096028#axzz1K9sgFLZ6

So what harm could there be in adding a little fracturing liquid to Susquehanna's toxic mix?

[xchrom]

8. recommend

[Snoutport]

9. kr important stuff!

[L0oniX]

10. All the ground water in the area is totally fucked anyway.

Watch "Gasland" Netflix. Everyone's water is fucked when they frack anywhere near their homes. Wait until they start fracking at the head of NYC water supply.

[daggahead]

15. My concern is that the oil drillers want to adopt ...

hydraulic fracturing.

Imagine the "dead" wells that may get "blowed up real good" to try to get more oil, and the contamination of wells and groundwater that results.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

11. Kick and rec.

[katnapped]

12. Why do you think Republicans are trying to defund the EPA? n/t

[nashville_brook]

13. they keep calling these things "blowout preventers" - i do not think that means what they think

it does.

[Curmudgeoness]

14. Sure, and it IS the Dept of Environmental Protection.

What is in a name anymore?

[Bozita]

16. ABC Nightline led with fracking. Josh Fox (Gasland) featured.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/hundreds-arkansas-earthquakes-linked-natural-gas-injection-wells/story?id=13431093

Are Arkansas' Natural Gas Injection Wells Causing Earthquakes?
By CHRIS BURY (@ChrisBuryABC) and ELY BROWN
April 21, 2011

Hundreds of small and medium-scale earthquakes have been rattling the area around Guy, Ark., and residents say wastewater injection wells being drilled in their area are to blame.

"It gives new meaning to the term 'rock your world,'" said resident Johnny Passmore. "There is no foundation. You are just shaking and you can't go anywhere because it's shaking."

In February, shocks from a 4.7-magnitude earthquake near the town were felt as far away as Memphis, Tenn., the biggest quake in the region in 35 years.

These earthquakes are the newest development in the raging national argument over the safety of drilling for natural gas.

Watch the full story on "Nightline" tonight at 11:35 p.m. ET

Josh Fox, the director of the Oscar-nominated documentary, "Gasland," questioned the industry's claims of natural gas as a clean energy source. His film is critical of a drilling method called hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as "fracking," where fluid is injected into rock, breaking it to release natural gas.

In 2008, Fox said he was offered $100,000 to lease his 19 acres in Pennsylvania for natural gas drilling. He then launched a road trip across 24 states to investigate the environmental impact natural gas drilling was having on local communities.

Many of the families featured in the film told Fox they had developed health problems after leasing their land for hydraulic drilling. "Nightline" asked him to come with them to Arkansas to talk with people about their experiences with the earthquakes.

"People are your first level of scientific data," Fox told "Nightline." "You have to trust what the people are saying on the ground as your first level in any investigation."

more...